“Inquiry means living in the soup. Inquiry means living in that uncomfortable space where we don’t know the answer.”-http://linkis.com/ow.ly/aEtda

…oh the narrative of facilitating inquiry-based learning! It sounds so romantic-“let students lead their own learning.” “let their questions and passions guide their thirst for knowledge.” -All so much easier said than done. I spend much of time in schools with teachers scratching their heads or ready to rip their hair out over “doing inquiry”. Progressive educators romanticize the glorious process of inquiry-based learning while science teachers salivate over the idea during summer planning. Fast forward 3 months-students feel confused, parents are frustrated and teachers are ready to throw in the towel on the idea. If we love the idea so much, then when the rubber meets the road where are we going wrong? My 2 cents:

  1. First and foremost, I think we tend to oversimplify what inquiry-based learning is. It’s easier to say what it’s not, rather than what it is. It’s not crossing your fingers and hoping kids ask a good question sometime before the end of a project. It’s not letting kids flail in the name of “exploration”. It’s not assuming that children inherently have the agency needed to guide their entire learning trajectory. Rather, the definition of inquiry-based learning is complex. Check out these 2 resources:

http://heawww.harvard.edu/ECT/Inquiry/inquiry1text.htl

http://www.teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html.

  1. We don’t always know what it looks like day-to-day. It’s difficult to “do inquiry” when we aren’t sure about things like classroom management-turning students loose can be a frightening process if there aren’t basic systems and structures in place to ensure a healthy learning environment. Scaffolding, via small workshops or prepared resources, is also a paradigm shift from traditional instruction that may feel unfamiliar to many facilitators.
  2. We don’t always give teachers the tools to do it– Inquiry-based learning requires specific training. Just the skill of developing open-ended questions alone is daunting for an experienced IBL teacher. I liked this resource on this topic- http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf
  3. We misinterpret the soup quote above. “not knowing the answer” means there can be different ways of knowing, but this process should be a rigorous one. Ambiguity doesn’t come from a lack of planning, direction or involvement-it comes from passionate discourse and exploration taking learning down new and unknown paths, together. This should be an intentionally supported process, that involves the teacher, not a serendipitous encounter.

So here is how I think we can live in the soup without drowning in it:

  • Think about what you know- Best practices are best practices. Letting 35 students spend 75 minutes of undirected time is never a good idea! Get some systems in place that will allow learning to happen in a healthy way. And check for understanding often!
  • Keep working on asking open-ended questions. These can be a well-crafted question for a unit or project, or perhaps just adjusting the ways in which you ask students questions in class during the day. I’m really digging this book right now on this topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dey1Rm5gUxw
  • Ensure foundational knowledge- We all know students need a foundation, so think about ways to expose them to content in a way that interests, engages and entices them so that they become interested and will ask good questions.
  • Be prepared-while ambiguity may be part of the process, you can still be prepared by anticipating student Need to Knows and having resources to which you can point them. Check out: http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf
  • Hold high expectations-inquiry is not a frivolous process for the weary. If you are going to go for it, go for it and hold your students to a high standard. Ask them difficult questions, push them to defend their learning, and expect them to learn deeply.

And if you have read this far and want to earn an additional gold star, think about becoming an inquiry-based facilitator with “a way of being” like one of these (I love this resource btw).